Agri-World

"Harvest of megacre aleph-stroke-237 is now complete at 41.5 gigatonnes. Survivors are directed to assemble for relocation and harvest of megacre aleph-stroke-238."

—Laud hailer announcement during the Tertiary Season of Verdale III

An Agri-World

An Agri-World is a planet of the Imperium of Man entirely dedicated to the production of agricultural products. Many planets of the Imperium, such as Forge Worlds and Hive Worlds, are completely incapable of sustaining the sheer number of people who live and work on them. To feed these people, as well as the vast armies of the Astra Militarum, many planets have been completely transformed into giant farms. Most of these planets have populations of less than 100 million people and possess only a few major cities. These farming planets, in their own way, are as vital to the Imperium as its hive cities. These planets are given over entirely to the production of food, which Hive Worlds cannot produce in sufficient quantities to keep their huge populations from starving. Many a world has whole continents given over to livestock or fields of crops. Some Agri-Worlds are covered in oceans teeming with fish and a few are far stranger -- worlds covered in edible fungus, scoured by swarms of nutritious insects or are gas giants whose upper atmospheric layers are home to flocks of edible or egg-producing flying creatures. A few planets are used solely to provide clean, potable water to nearby Hive Worlds. Agri-Worlds are sometimes ruled directly by the Adeptus Administratum rather than by their own local government, to help ensure that their produce is grown and harvested with maximum efficiency.

Those who toil on Agri-Worlds provide the Imperium's countless billions of subjects one of their essential resources: food. The Adeptus Administratum classifies planets to this task based on desirable climates, native livestock, or other natural factors. On other Agri-Worlds, artificial aspects dominate, such as sheltered hydroponic lakes, floating fields suspended in hollowed-out planetoids, or algae vats buried deep within irradiated mountains. In all cases, their populations are devoted to a single cause: feeding the Imperium. Even the slightest crop failure or livestock plague can doom other worlds to horrific starvation or collapse an Imperial warfront, thus making their often-overlooked efforts vital for humanity's survival.

Though Agri-Worlds are each devoted to growing and gathering foodstuffs for a ravenous Imperium, each is unique in the ways it goes about this, as well as the actual items it produces and exports. Many rely on staples though, as these are relatively simple to grow, store, manipulate, and process into a variety of forms for human consumption across the galaxy. Some concentrate on rarer items and delicacies that can only be produced on that planet, foods bound for the tables of the connected and powerful. In time, most become renowned for certain exports, as Kalto is for padonus rice or Cel is for its mhoxen. Few Agri-Worlders, however, share in these bounties from their cultivated fields or packed corrals, and often subsist on discarded grains or meats unsuitable for processing. Agrarian workforces can be anchored to working a single field, often developing such devotion to their produce that new religious sects can spring up like the plants themselves. Others might continually travel the surface, following local growing seasons to descend like attacking armies on fields ripe for harvest, and scouring the landscape to remove every morsel of grain, stalk, or other edible life. More voracious than any swarm, they leave behind nothing but barren soil before marching off to eradicate the next territory. On some planets, especially where there is a strong Adeptus Mechanicus presence, labourers with bionic scythe-limbs might work alongside monotask harvest Servitors while Combat Servitors patrol the fields and use their Heavy Stubbers to discourage marauding creatures.

Produce fields vary in size and shape, including precisely-designed acreages based on ancient decrees, patterns to venerate revered Imperial Saints, or wild forms based on the seasonal whims of their rulers. Some fields are not on the land at all, such as plankton farms that reap the oceans or underground fungi caverns. Other Agri-Worlds instead specialise in livestock creatures, from the ubiquitous Grox to unique native beasts that cannot thrive anywhere else. Like the flora these need not be terrestrial, and could include gargantuan sea-beasts larger than starships, or sky-blackening clouds of protein-rich insects. In some cases these planets might import base fodder, or cultivate hydroponic algae and vat-grown lesh, just to feed these fauna until the beasts are harvested.

Working on any Agri-World, no matter its produce, is harsh and remorseless. There are always fields to till, crops to tend, harvests to conduct, or beasts to oversee. Even in artificial pastures, algae vats must be seeded and skimmed of their precious yields in continual cycles. This subservience to natural processes breeds strong individuals who readily apply their muscles to any problem. It is somewhat rare for them to leave their homeworld, but those who do can find many new uses across the Imperium.

Agri-Worlds often supply the bulk of their Imperial Tithes in edible produce rather than manpower, given their relatively low populations and the importance of their exports. Still, the Astra Militarum is known to draw in Agri-World natives, especially in times of invasion for nearby planets. Some Agri-Worlders might develop an affinity for machinery, after much experience working with auto-scythes or harvest crawlers, and could be noticed for recruitment into the Cult Mechanicus. The Ecclesiarchy calls to others, from their years spent intoning prayers to the God-Emperor for successful harvests. The endless tabulations of harvest output, seed usage, or other essential organisational recording can indicate a talent perfectly suited to the Adeptus Administratum and a vital posting anywhere across the Imperium. The curse of mutation is also present, though less often confronted and eradicated. Agri-Worlds, with lower population densities, allow the afflicted to more easily hide deformities or elude watchful eyes.